Day After Halloween
by TheBlueVampireQueenofAbiland
Summary: "So what's the tattoo for?" "Uh. . ." "I bet it's a vampire thing, huh? Like, it's written in vampire language? It can't just be a normal tattoo 'cuz my mom says that you have to be really old enough to get one. How old are you?" ". . .fourteen?" "Do you mean in human years or vampire years?" Vlad's babysitting for Jack. This is going to get difficult. . .


AN: Wow. Just. . . wow. I never expected people to be this interested in little Jacky, but lo and behold here I am eight reviews later realizing with shock that people like the idea. So now I will say to all you wonderful people who reviewed: thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much. Because of the reviews I've decided to do another oneshot with Jack and to maybe (which here can be read as "definitely") do a multi-chapter story after I'm done with my story Lovesick. You people have truly moved mountains!

For those of you who haven't read 'Monsters I Have Met', Jack is the little kid that Henry talked Vlad into jumping for his candy on Halloween.

Now, without further ado, here's the story!

* * *

"Skeletons, spirits and haunts,

More than most anyone wants.

Will you pay for a shock,

'Cause we're quite overstocked

On skeletons, spirits and haunts."

_~Shel Silverstein's Day After Halloween_

Vlad could feel the stare boring into the side of his head, like the little kid was trying to drill through his skull with the power of his eyes alone. The next step in this conquest would be to attempt to read Vlad's mind, and while Vlad was fairly certain telepathy was a skill limited to vampires the jury was still out on ten-year-olds.

And girls.

Why was the kid so interested in scrutinizing Vlad anyway?! It wasn't like he was a freak of nature or anything. . . well, he was, but that didn't mean the kid had to treat him like it! He felt uncomfortably like an animal on display in a zoo. . . or a vampire suddenly realizing he'd royally screwed up. When he'd seen Jack at the Christmas bash that Nelly was helping put on, his first reaction had been a guilty feeling like he'd swallowed a rock. He'd remembered how freaked out the little kid had been on Halloween and was crossing his fingers that he hadn't given the boy severe psychological damage. He could also recall the bare, sketchy details of an awkward conversation he'd had with Nelly that had ended with him knowing both Jack's name and roughly every single detail of his life from birth. If Nelly had gotten all that just from being in the same parent group as Jack's mom Vlad didn't even want to know how much she'd already told Jack about _him_.

Vlad had been determined to avoid Jack at all costs, and had done pretty well up until Jack had accidentally spilled punch on his shoes. The poor kid had started to apologize, looked up, and kind of. . . froze. Vlad had barely managed to fight off the deer-in-the-headlights feeling that had gripped him and had been the first one to break the silence. The conversation that followed was awkward, to say the least, and then _that_ had slipped out.

_"You know know I'm a. . . vampire, right?"_

Stupid, stupid, _stupid_! What was he even thinking? A pound of guilt in his throat and he'd tried to wash it out with his secret, what kind of idiot was he?!

Apparently the kind that then reassured himself that 'it wasn't like he'd ever even _see_ Jack again' and wound up with babysitting duty less than a month later. I wasn't exactly like he could say 'no' to Nelly, now was it? "Hey Nelly, think you can skip out on work for me? I can't be around Jack. Why? Oh, no reason, it's just. . . uh, he may or may not know my deepest, darkest secret."

Yeah, like _that'd_ work.

So now Vlad was sitting here with a kid staring at him like he was a sideshow freak.

Great.

Jack stared at the side of Vlad's head, waiting for the vampire to do. . . _something_. He'd been waiting a while, but when was he going to get a chance like this again? How many people could honestly say that they'd seen a vampire in its natural habitat? How many people had seen a vampire, _period?_ Plus, now that he was eighty-seven percent sure that Vlad wasn't about to eat him for dinner, he could actually enjoy the 'seeing a vampire' part of things. Score!

Jack bit his lip to keep his smile in and shifted his head where it was propped up on his hands. Vlad glanced towards him at the sudden shift in motion, then turned away the instant he realized he'd been caught looking. The couch Jack was sitting on was small enough that Vlad was less than half a foot away from him, and Jack was starting to notice things.

Like how pale Vlad was.

How dark his eyes were.

And, more interestingly, the small but noticeable tattoo on Vlad's wrist. Well, noticeable if you'd been scrutinizing every detail of his persona for. . . what, a half an hour now? Time really did fly when you were having fun!

"So what's the tattoo for?" Jack blurted, unable to hold back the torrent of words one more second. Vlad jumped and turned to look at him with what felt like over-intentional slowness.

"Uh. . ." He began, but Jack steamrolled over him.

"I bet it's a vampire thing, huh? Like, it's written in vampire language? It can't just be a normal tattoo 'cuz my mom says that you have to be really old to get tattoos, but since you're a vampire I guess you could be really old enough to get one. How old are you?"

". . .fourteen?" Vlad's reply sounded like he'd been hit by a truck a couple times and put on Jeopardy.

"Do you mean in human years or-" Jack lowered his voice to a whisper, "vampire years?"

"Oh. . ." Vlad seemed to be trying to shake off his daze. "Uh, yeah, about that, I'm not actually a-"

"Vampire? Look, I won't tell anybody at all ever. I don't think even Mark or Todd know for sure now, 'cuz I won't talk to them 'bout, you know, _that_ Halloween and definitely not 'bout you. They think it was probably some high schooler prank since our moms keep saying-"

Vlad interrupted. "Got it, thanks. But I. . . uh. . ." Geez, why was it so hard for him to lie to this kid? Maybe this situation reminded him too much of his confessional with an eight-year-old Henry. But that was Henry! This was a random kid who'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Henry'd wanted candy! That was it! But now this random kid was looking up at him with Little Kid Starstruck Wonder Eyes™ and asking him to spill everything about himself. It was. . . mildly flattering? Making him feel like some sort of superhero? Whatever it was, it still didn't justify what he said next.

"You've got to _promise_, okay? It's-" Vlad swallowed, remembering an eight-year-old human with a bloody knee. "It's a very very big secret and you can't tell anyone, _ever_."

Jack grinned, flashing a missing tooth, and held up the boy scout hand sign before changing his mind putting one hand over his heart instead. "I promise. Promise, promise, promise."

Vlad smiled back, albeit weakly, and let out a deep sigh. "Alright then. Yeah, I'm fourteen as in human fourteen. Oh, and the tattoo _is_ a vampire thing." He was struck by a sudden panicky thought that Jack would conclude that underage tattoos were cool and hurriedly backtracked. "Uh, it's not actually a tattoo though. I mean, it doesn't get put on like a real tattoo and. . . you have to be a vampire to have one so. . ." Vlad trailed off. Jack was staring intently at him, hanging on every word that passed over his lips. God, this was intimidating. . . to feel like he as the epitome of cool in this kid's eyes just put sooo much pressure on everything.

"So if I get that tattoo I'll turn into a vampire?" Jack asked, grinning. Vlad resisted the urge to smash his face into the nearest wall.

"No, it's the other way around. If you become a vampire you get this tattoo. But. . . just don't get a tattoo, okay?"

Jack nodded vigorously and Vlad breathed an internal sigh of relief. Tattoos on ten-year-olds were _not a good idea_, and that was all there was to it. Heck, Nelly had flipped the heck out when she'd seen _Vlad's_ tattoo, never mind what a _normal_ mom would think if their kid wanted a strange, suspiciously cultish-looking symbol on their wrist.

Jack bounced up and down in his seat. Now that Vlad was starting to explain about being a vampire, he just couldn't stop the boundless energy thrumming through him. This had to be the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him, even if he included the time his mom had found a raccoon family in their basement and his dad had had to call animal control.

"So you've got fangs, right? I mean, you had them back at Halloween, so where'd they go?" Jack figured he already knew the answer to this one, but he wanted to know if his guess was right.

Vlad opened his mouth a little and tapped just behind his canines. Jack stared in rapt fascination. He couldn't ever remember being _this_ interested in someone's teeth before. . . well, maybe except for Ellie Porter and her braces, but this was even cooler!

"See right here?" Vlad began, "This is where my fangs tuck away when I don't need them. But when I do. . ."

Right before Jack's disbelieving gaze a pair of sharp, white fangs slid down right where Vlad was pointing. His eyes widened. "Shee?" Vlad's words were slightly slurred as he tried to keep his mouth as open as possible.

"Whoa! That's _awesome!_" Jack exclaimed, reaching out almost without thinking to try to touch. Vlad pulled back slightly and Jack froze, realizing he was about to shove his finger in someone else's mouth. Vampire or not, that was a little rude. "Uh. . . can I touch?" He asked sheepishly. Vlad seemed to hesitate for a moment, but slowly nodded. Jack bit the inside of his cheek to keep his grin from spreading to disturbing proportions and carefully ran the tip of his index finger over the razor-sharp edge of the fang. It felt like he was touching a knife, not that Vlad's fangs were like knives but that there was the same ready-to-jerk-away-at-a-second's-notice energy running through his hand. Danger energy.

Jack slowly brought his hand back to his side, careful not to prick himself along the way. The little smile was still on his face, but it felt a little. . . _different_ now.

"So you really. . . drink blood? Like, from people?" The hesitation was barely there, but it was definitely noticeable and Jack crossed his fingers that Vlad hadn't picked up on it. It wasn't like he was _scared_ or anything. . . much. . . it was just that the answer to the second question was going to seriously change the course of this conversation.

Vlad seemed just as nervous as Jack was, actually. The vampire was fidgeting, twisting his hands together in his lap as he thought about the question. Jack hoped that didn't mean the answer was a bad one. "I. . . well, vampires do drink blood, and a lot of them do drink from people-" Jack tried his best not to flinch at that, and he was pretty sure he succeeded. "But _I _don't. Nelly works in a hospital, so she can get me some stuff from the Red Cross. It's gotta be human blood, but I don't have to actually _bite_ people to get it."

The vampire's head tilted and he glanced at Jack in a way that made Jack realize that he was trying not to be noticed. But why. . ? Then it clicked. The vampire wanted to know if any of this was going to go too far and make Jack scared, but Jack was _so_ not scared! If Vlad said he didn't hurt people then he _didn't_, end of story. So Jack plastered an even bigger grin on his face and kept right up with the questions.

"You burn in the sunlight, right? Oh, how about garlic? And crosses? And can a stake through the heart really kill you?"

Vlad quirked an eyebrow at Jack. "I really don't want to know why you're asking this. . ." He said teasingly. Jack blinked, then realized what he was getting at.

"Wha. . . no, I don't wanna hurt you!" He protested. Vlad smirked and got to his feet, starting off down the hallway at a pace he figured Jack could match.

"I dunno, you seem like a pretty strong little kid. . . you could be a vampire slayer undercover." Vlad glanced over his shoulder at the little kid. He seemed to realize he was being teased, his cheeks flushing slightly under his dusting of freckles.

"I am _not_." Jack argued, and Vlad felt something clamp onto his leg just above his knee. Vlad looked down, smile widening, and saw that Jack had his knees and arms wrapped around his leg, inhibiting him from moving forwards.

"Aaah! The vampire slayer's got me!" He shrieked, falling to his knees as carefully as was possible to avoid landing on Jack. The ten-year-old, for his part, giggled happily and then sloppily tried to paste a serious expression over his grin.

"Rawr!" Jack yelled, grabbing Vlad's shoulders and doing his absolute best to tackle him to the ground. Vlad felt his smirk spread to a grin at the ineffectiveness of the attack. He reached back and slung his arms under Jack's legs, hoisting him up into a rough approximation of a piggy back.

"Will you spare my life, oh valiant slayer, if I show you where Nelly hides the cookies?"

Vlad felt Jack's face press into his shoulder blades, and he sensed that Jack was hiding a smile in the fabric of his hoodie. "Depends. Are they chocolate chip?"

So that was how a ten-year-old boy and a fourteen-year-old vampire wound up sitting opposite each other at a kitchen table, one swiping away a milk mustache and the other dunking his cookie in a glass of O positive. So maybe Jack did ask a few too many questions, but he hadn't flinched when Vlad pulled the blood bag out and that counted for something too. It wouldn't be perfect, or even normal, but for a day-after-Halloween friendship it was certainly going to be a good one.


End file.
